United States or Namibia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The story of Angelica Kauffman's life is of unusual interest. She was born at Coire, in the Grisons. 1742-1807. Her father, an artist, had gone from Schwarzenburg to Coire to execute some frescoes in a church, and had married there. When Angelica was a year old the family settled in Morbegno, in Lombardy.
She was now daily associated with people of culture and elegance, and thus early in her life acquired the modest dignity and self-possession which enabled her in her future life to accept becomingly the honors and attentions which were paid her. Her mother's death occurred at Milan, and her father returned to Schwarzenburg.
As a person, she excited an interest in her lifetime which has never died out, and Miss Thackeray's novel, "Miss Angel," tells what is claimed to be her story, as nearly as such stories are told in novels. She was born at Coire, in the Grisons. Her father was an artist, a native of Schwarzenburg, and when Angelica was born he was occupied in executing some frescoes at Coire.
Her mother died, and her father decided to return to his native Schwarzenburg to execute some extensive decorative works in that vicinity. In the interior decoration of a church Angelica painted in fresco the figures of the twelve apostles after engravings from the works of Piazetta.
The coarse, homely life of Schwarzenburg was in extreme contrast to that of Milan and was most uncongenial to a sensitive nature; but Angelica was saved from melancholy by the companionship she felt in the grand pine forests, which soothed her discontent, while her work left her little time to pine for the happiness she had left or even to mourn the terrible loss of her mother.
At length, in 1781, her father's failing health demanded their return to Italy; and now, when forty years old, she married Antonio Zucchi, an artist who had long loved her and devoted himself to her and to her father with untiring affection. The old Kauffman lived to visit his home in Schwarzenburg and to reach Southern Italy, but died soon after. Signor Zucchi made his home in Rome.
"Then you could not be aware of what has happened meanwhile here in Vienna, and the chief of police could not have informed you of the particulars. A great deal of money had been distributed among the populace. Prince Carl von Schwarzenburg himself had dropped some indiscreet remarks.
Word Of The Day